All I know is, I can’t wait to see the bloody film. To sate my daily need for more hobbit gossip, I recently got my hands on the five movie tie-in books (published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the U.S. publisher of all of Tolkien’s works). The titles are The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Official Movie Guide and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Visual Companion (these two are for adults, mostly); and The Movie Storybook, The World of Hobbits, and Activity Book (for kids, mostly; their titles are also preceded by the unwieldy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”).

All are full-color, super glossy, and chock with images from Peter Jackson’s first film (and sometimes, a little bit beyond the first film), and all five include some minor insights, sneak previews and/or spoilers, depending on your point of view.

I’ll give you my two cents and three gold pieces on the kids’ books first.

To my mind, all three books for budding hobbit fans, while perfectly fine, are the least impressive of the five titles. Yes, they are full of information about the film, and lots of pretty movie stills. But I’m not sure I’d let these books be the first exposure my kid gets to Tolkien’s creation. I’d rather read Tolkien’s The Hobbit to my kid first, then let her see the movie, then let her get her hands on these books. Not the other way around. Perhaps these tie-in books are a way for kids re-experience the film, and I can see them flipping through them to better get a grip on the plot and characters. But as kids books, I will say, as a whole, they’re clumsily and seemingly hastily put together. And full of spoilers.

First up, there’s The Movie Storybook, a highly simplistic version of The Hobbit story. There’s not a lot for kids to read here; each two-page spread has just a couple paragraphs of text. Mostly it’s big color stills from Peter Jackson’s film. Don’t expect a literary experience, and if you want to save the surprise of the story to the movie theater, you might wait on this one until after they know the plot.

For example, there’s a big picture of Gandalf with an eagle screaming at him, and that comes at the end of the book, along with the text explaining how the eagles save the adventuring party. You might want to save that surprise for the theater?

The “Meet Your Match” game from the HOBBIT ACTIVITY BOOK (Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The Activity Book is more complex, with maps, word and number games, a fun flow chart to “find out which member of the Company you are most like,” and a couple of puzzles that relate to deciphering runes and matching each dwarf with his weapon and the like. Now, does Dwalin or Balin use the war-hammer? And which dwarf has the goblin axe embedded in his head? Oops, spoiler alert.

But many of the activities are fairly brainless mazes and puzzles, like that routine “spot the 8 differences between these two pictures” one, and several ancient optical illusions that I remember from the third grade 40 years ago — e.g., is this a silhouettes of a wine cup or two people kissing? — which have nothing to do with the movie. I think the creators here could have been more inventive in coming up with some unique content.

Another gripe: Kids are also asked to scribble on and cut out the glossy pages of this $12.00 book. Too bad this wasn’t a paperback, and made to feel more like a workbook by being printed on more artsy-craft paper stock. Not sure parents want their kids snipping up a hardcover with a pair of scissors.

A troll from THE WORLD OF HOBBITS — Is this Bert, Tom or William? (Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Lastly, The World of Hobbits, which introduces kids to the basic concepts such as: What are hobbits? What do they like to eat? Who is Thorin, Gandalf, Gollum? How is each of the 13 dwarves different? Monsters are also introduced here, and if your kids are too young or sensitive, the photos of trolls, goblins and wargs might freak them out. That said, it might be helpful to expose your kids to this title; see it as perhaps necessary brainwashing of your young-uns so they understand the plot and characters of a fairly complex movie, and get used to the baddies before they see them on the big screen.

Hall of the Elvenking in THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY ACTIVITY BOOK. But Mommy, Bilbo and the dwarves don’t meet any elves by the end of the movie. Oops.

An annoying element: I didn’t love this book’s overly-cheery tone and the overabundance of exclamation marks (which would have made Tolkien cringe, I think). But the info here is decent, and this title is a way to get your little nerds up to speed on Middle-earth.

One curious observation about these three books: They include are some funny spoilers.

Perhaps because the two movie plan for The Hobbit was changed late in the game to a three-movie plan, these books may have gone to press before the new ending of the first movie was settled.

Spoiler: Daddy, who is Thranduil,? (Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

This explains why, for example, in the Activity Book, we get a tiny glimpse of the Hall of the Elvenking, and Thranduil, the Elvenking himself. Whereas from all reports, the first movie, An Unexpected Journey, will end before the Company even gets to Mirkwood.

Next time, in a future post, I’ll take a look at the two adult titles, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Official Movie Guide, the Visual Companion.

Ah, the Shire. The peaceful, serene home of the Baggins Family as well as many other families. Here are two puzzles from the Shire to pass the time.

First Puzzle:
Odbin Proudfoot has passed away. He left behind 11,700 gold pieces to be divided amongst his immediate family. Being a bit of a trickster his will stated that each of his sons were to get 3 times as much as his daughters and each daughter was to get twice as much as their mother. Odbin has 5 sons and 4 daughters. How much did the mother get?

Second Puzzle
Drogo Baggins was buying food for a feast he was hosting. Running into his good friend Brenin Brandywine he took the opportunity to complain about the rising cost of living in the Shire. ” I tell you, Brenin, prices have jumped. I’m not half done with my shopping and I have spent half the money I started with. Actually, I now have as many silver as I had gold and half as many gold as I had silver. It’s terrible — I may need to reduce the number of guests to the feast. Not you, of course, Brenin, you’re always welcome.”

Given that there are 20 silver to a gold how much has Drogo spent so far?

Dust off your algebra and get to work. Send both answers to GeekDad Weekly Challenge for your chance to win a $50.00 ThinkGeek gift certificate. Where you can buy lots of great Tolkien-related stuff.